3,211 research outputs found
Towards developing understanding of the drivers, constraints from the consumption values underpinning participation in physical activity.
Overall participation rates in physical activity across the UK have remained relatively static since the mid 1980s, with attendant causes for concern about the inequality of participation rates amongst various target groups that may be worthy of specific investigation. Behaviour change models from the fields of leisure studies, consumer behaviour and social psychology offer conceptualisation of a notion of exchange underpinning the expectancy-value process, noting that, in order to facilitate a voluntary exchange there needs to be a value proposition that induces action and/or motivates effort from the consumer. It is therefore reasonable to assume that such value expectations will also influence health behaviour intentions.
This paper therefore aims to offer a more developing understanding of the drivers, constraints and experiential consumption values underpinning participation in physical activity. Results suggest that, rather than focusing on the social and altruistic values of behavioural changes, and given that the functional value of participation is already well-known (if not always acted upon) through social marketing campaigns’ educational efforts and through the media, it may be worth policymakers and leisure service providers focusing more on highlighting the emotional benefits to be gained, especially when targeting women to increase their participation in physical activit
Why don’t people do what’s good for them? : an examination of the value(s) which affect physical activity.
One of the 21st Century’s major public health issues is physical inactivity. Therefore one of the greatest public policy challenges is to find new ways of conferring to an inactive population the health related benefits that arise from being physically active in a way that not only leads to knowledge acquisition, but which also leads to increased levels of participation in physical activity. Participation rates in physical activity across the UK have remained stubbornly static since the mid‐ 1980s and retain a range of gender, age, social‐economic and ethnic participation inequalities.
Research has indicated that, when compared to men, women are more likely to: lead sedentary lifestyles (Hausenblas and Symons‐Downs, 2005), experience poor health (Bertakis et al., 2000), and feel more uncomfortable about their body image (Liechty et al., 2006), factors which impact on and/or result in lower participation levels, suggesting that social marketing campaigns to date have been largely ineffective. A central tenet of social marketing is to achieve a voluntary, not forced or coerced behaviour change by emphasising a value proposition that induces action from the consumer. Set in the context of publicly funded leisure facilities this paper offers empirical insights regarding the drivers, constraints and consumption values underpinning women’s participation in physical activity. Our results suggest that value perceptions regarding the costs, benefits and enjoyment of exercise do not differ with gender. However, statistically significant differences exist between the genders regarding: the physical environment within which exercise occurs; the quality of service experience; and intrinsic factors such as social and altruistic value.
Insights gained from this research may be able to inform policymakers and leisure services providers regarding more effective methods of engaging ‘hard‐to‐reach’ groups, such as women. Specifically, our findings suggest that exercise adoption is likely to be increased with targeted social marketing campaigns which focus on emphasising the experiential aspects of consuming physical activity viewed from the perspective of value‐in‐use rather than from the traditional price‐based perspective that tends to focus on the trade off of costs against benefits
Weighing Neutrinos with Galaxy Cluster Surveys
Large future galaxy cluster surveys, combined with cosmic microwave
background observations, can achieve a high sensitivity to the masses of
cosmologically important neutrinos. We show that a weak lensing selected sample
of ~100,000 clusters could tighten the current upper bound on the sum of masses
of neutrino species by an order of magnitude, to a level of 0.03 eV. Since this
statistical sensitivity is below the best existing lower limit on the mass of
at least one neutrino species, a future detection is likely, provided that
systematic errors can be controlled to a similar level.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, version accepted for publication in PR
A Rat Model of Gambling Behavior and its Extinction: Effects of Win Probability on Choice in a Concurrent-Chains Procedure
Two experiments examined the effects of varying the probability of “wins” within a rat model of gambling. On a concurrent-chains procedure, rats could choose between a “work” lever on which a fixed 20 responses produced a food pellet or a “gamble” lever, where on some trials (“wins”) only one response was required for reinforcement while on other trials 40 responses were required. Despite the fact that the work lever was always associated with the higher overall reinforcement rate, rats frequently chose to respond on the gamble lever. The frequency with which rats chose the gamble lever varied as a function of win probability. Extinction of the gamble choice (i.e., gamble-lever choices no longer resulted in wins) resulted in consistent choice of the work lever. The behavioral baselines reported in the present study may prove useful for investigators interested in employing a rat model of gambling
Calibration of liquid argon and neon detectors with
We report results from tests of Kr, as a calibration
source in liquid argon and liquid neon. Kr atoms are
produced in the decay of Rb, and a clear Kr
scintillation peak at 41.5 keV appears in both liquids when filling our
detector through a piece of zeolite coated with Rb. Based on this
scintillation peak, we observe 6.0 photoelectrons/keV in liquid argon with a
resolution of 6% (/E) and 3.0 photoelectrons/keV in liquid neon with a
resolution of 19% (/E). The observed peak intensity subsequently decays
with the Kr half-life after stopping the fill, and we
find evidence that the spatial location of Kr atoms in
the chamber can be resolved. Kr will be a useful
calibration source for liquid argon and neon dark matter and solar neutrino
detectors.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figure
Type II Seesaw Dominance in Non-supersymmetric and Split Susy SO(10) and Proton Life Time
Recently type II seesaw dominance in a supersymmetric SO(10) framework has
been found useful in explaining large solar and atmospheric mixing angles as
well as larger values of while unifying quark and lepton masses.
An important question in these models is whether there exists consistency
between coupling unification and type II seesaw dominance. Scenarios where this
consistency can be demonstrated have been given in a SUSY framework. In this
paper we give examples where type II dominance occurs in SO(10) models without
supersymmetry but with additional TeV scale particles and also in models with
split-supersummetry. Grand unification is realized in a two-step process via
breaking of SO(10) to SU(5) and then to a TeV scale standard model supplemented
by extra fields and an SU(5) Higgs multiplet at a scale about
GeV to give type-II seesaw. The predictions for proton lifetime in
these models are in the range yrs. to yrs.. A number of recent numerical fits to GUT-scale fermion
masses can be accommodated within this model.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX, 3 figures, related areas: hep-ex, hep-th, astro-ph;
Reference added, typo corrected, version to appear in Physical Review
Differential Privacy and the Fat-Shattering Dimension of Linear Queries
In this paper, we consider the task of answering linear queries under the
constraint of differential privacy. This is a general and well-studied class of
queries that captures other commonly studied classes, including predicate
queries and histogram queries. We show that the accuracy to which a set of
linear queries can be answered is closely related to its fat-shattering
dimension, a property that characterizes the learnability of real-valued
functions in the agnostic-learning setting.Comment: Appears in APPROX 201
Fragile three-dimensionality in the quasi-one-dimensional cuprate PrBa_2Cu_4O_8
In this article we report on the experimental realization of dimensional
crossover phenomena in the chain compound PrBaCuO using
temperature, high magnetic fields and disorder as independent tuning
parameters. In purer crystals of PrBaCuO, a highly anisotropic
three-dimensional Fermi-liquid state develops at low temperatures. This
metallic state is extremely susceptible to disorder however and localization
rapidly sets in. We show, through quantitative comparison of the relevant
energy scales, that this metal/insulator crossover occurs precisely when the
scattering rate within the chain exceeds the interchain hopping rate(s), i.e.
once carriers become confined to a single conducting element.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, published at
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1367-2630/8/9/172/njp6_9_172.htm
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